PBR's Justin McBride shows he's ready to ride in his eighth win of the season in Greensboro

By Mary Rudloff
Posted Sunday, September 16, 2007

GREENSBORO, N.C. – If any PBR fan thought Justin McBride was coming back too soon from his shoulder injury, he chose Saturday night to show them 24,500 reasons why he was ready to ride.

McBride, the 2005 PBR World Champion and current points leader in the 2007 race showed he was up to the challenge at the PBR BTFS U.S. Army Invitational in the Greensboro Coliseum, as one of only three riders to cover all three of his bulls. For his efforts, he walked away with a $24,500 check.

His 88.75 point short-go trip on Okeechobee Spots may not have been the high score ride of the short-go, but it did give McBride his eighth event win of the season, and added a little distance between him and those chasing him for the world title.

McBride entered the championship round in fifth place, after putting 86.5 points on the board in round two aboard Angel Eyes (Jeff Robinson). He started out his winning weekend Friday night with 83.75 points aboard Baby Betta (Tony Sharp). The Greensboro event was McBride’s first after dislocating his left shoulder (free arm) in Chihuahua, Mexico in late August. His return to competition was not anticipated to take place until next week at the earliest.

McBride, in search of his second world title, acknowledged that, in order to get back to riding so quickly, he has had to spend a great deal of the time in the gym, increasing his shoulder strength. Acknowledging with a laugh that working out is not something he would normally do, McBride’s riding this weekend showed the effort is paying off. He faces surgery to repair the shoulder, slated to take place after the PBR World Finals in Las Vegas next month.

Posting identical championship round scores of 89.75 points were LJ Jenkins aboard Versus Blackout (Page & Buck) and Renato Nunes who was literally jumping for joy in the arena after covering Shanghai (Diamond S). Both men had covered their first two bulls, but Nunes held the points lead up until McBride’s ride, the last of the night.

None of the other riders in the championship round made it to the eight-second buzzer.

Brazilian Paulo Crimber entered the final round with the points lead but bucked off Just A Dream (Frontier/Teague/Steiner) at the 4.0 second mark. The ride was anything but a dream for Crimber, who literally went head to head with the bull and was unconscious before hitting the arena floor. Bullfighters and riders scrambled to provide cover for Crimber, who laid motionless only feet from the out gate. After a few tense and quiet moments in the arena, Crimber was helped to his feet and walked out, leaning heavily on medical team members.

North Carolina rider, and definite fan favorite this weekend, JB Mauney bucked off Cat Daddy (Diamond S) at 6.2 seconds, and landed directly in the path of the bull. Mauney, who has been battling a knee injury, had to be carried from the arena. He had made it into the short-go on one bull, his 87.25 Friday night, but lost some ground in his effort to close the points gap between McBride and himself when Crossfire Hurricane (Page & Teague) sent him to the dirt in 2.7 seconds in round two.

Number three in the points race, Guilherme Marchi, saw his streak of ten straight qualified rides end in round two, when he bucked off Heat Flash (Sharp Zaunbrecher). His Friday night score was not enough to get him into the short-go.

After failing to make his ride Friday night, reigning World Champion Adriano Moraes got down to business in round two, with an 87.25 pointer on Lynch Mob (Frontier Rodeo Co.). That sent him into the championship round in 11th place, but Wildfire (Frontier Teague Nixon) sent him crashing to the dirt almost as soon as the gate opened.

Also making the championship round were:

• Brian Herman, who was bucked off Savage Shaker (Page & Buck) in 3.3 seconds. Herman also failed to post a score in round two when Buffalo Bob (Page/Bucking Bulls Now) sent him head first to the dirt in 1.8 seconds;
• Tony Mendes, who faced Big Bucks (Frontier Teague). Mendes lasted 1.6 seconds;
• Cole Taylor aboard Chicken on a Chain, in a 3.0 second ride;
• Colby Yates, who got off to a rough start on Black Smoke (Page & Teague), when the bull came spinning out of the chute backwards. Yates lasted 6.2 seconds.
• Kody Lostroh in a powerhouse ride on Cochise (Klein/Tutt) that fell 3/10th of a second short of the buzzer;
• Greg Potter, who posted his second score of the weekend in the second round, with an 83.25 aboard Cow Pox (Frontier Rodeo Co.) but couldn’t continue his streak aboard Jim Dippin (Diamond S);
• Beau Hill, facing the cold shoulder from Blizzard (Diamond S) at 3.1 seconds in the championship round. Hill scored an 83.0 ride on Kamakazi (Klein Tutt) in round two;
• Clayton Williams, whose crash with Scene of the Crash (Frontier Teague Ron White) came only 3.0 seconds into the ride. Williams had followed Friday night’s 87 pointer with an 85 point ride on Super Duty (Page Teague Toone) in round two;
• Matt Bohon, who entered the short-go in second place, after an 86.75 pointer on his round two reride bull, Dog Dip. The reride came after Gigilo backed out of the chute earlier in the second round.

Saturday’s second and championship rounds of this weekend’s U.S. Army Invitational are slated to air on Fox on Sunday. A shortened second round will be shown, according to arena announcements, as taping for Fox did not begin until McBride’s second round ride.

Qualified rides in the second round that took place prior to McBride’s – and therefore not likely to be aired – were:

• Ned Cross on Spuds McKenzie (Frontier) with an 83.25;
• LJ Jenkins on Redneck (Jerome Davis Bucking Bulls) at 86.0;
• Colby Yates scoring an 86.25 on Sleepy (Tony Sharp);
• JW Hart with an 82.25 point ride on Git R Done (Jeff Robinson);
• Tony Mendes putting up 85.75 points on Atta Boy (Jeff Robinson)

Mike White, who was bucked off on Friday night, did not ride in Saturday night’s competition. No reason was given.

A bull making its debut in Greensboro, and attempting to take out anyone and anything in the arena after bucking off Luke Snyder, was Mud Light, a son of Mossy Oak Mudslinger.

Snyder is slated to tie the "Iron Man" JW Hart’s record of 197 consecutive events next week in Grand Rapids, Mich., and break it at the Mohegan Sun event in Uncasville, Conn., the weekend of Sept. 28-30.

All photographs ©2007 Photo by Mary Rudloff